


be still, my heart

by rosybelle



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Ace Inclusiveness, Betty's A Good Bro, Coffee, Dramatic Jughead, Fainting, Love Confessions, M/M, Oblivious Jughead, archie isn't in love with veronica okay, i just want clarify that that is what goes down in the story, jughead faints lol, stupid Archie, they weren't even dating in the first place, um, you can interpret this as ace!jughead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 10:57:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11416485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosybelle/pseuds/rosybelle
Summary: Jughead Jones has always loved Archie Andrews-anyone in Riverdale with eyes could see that.orJughead is an emotionally constipated mess, Archie's concerned, and there's some fainting in the mix.





	be still, my heart

Jughead Jones has always loved Archie Andrews- anyone in Riverdale with eyes could see that.

Everyone except Archie himself.

To Jughead, the knowledge of his best friend's ignorance towards the true manner of his feelings were both a blessing and a curse. For starters, Archie was the most heterosexual man on the face of the earth probably and relished in it. But if he weren't so damn stupid he could see that his best friend since kindergarten was head over fucking heels for him.

So, yeah, you could say Jughead was a _tad_ bit frustrated.

Frustrated like he was right now, watching Archie stare at Veronica Lodge like she was water in a desert. It made his head hurt and his breathing quicken, which he guessed was in response to the inner turmoil he was bravely enduring.

Huh.

Bravely- more like miserably.

Veronica was sweet and all, but the girl had a sixth sense when it came to sexual or emotional attraction. Either she blinded by the sunshine Archie's entire being radiated, or she was simply ignoring Jughead in order to ogle at the redhead without any guilty feelings.

To be honest, Jughead would do the same.

But come on.

It was like the entire universe was taunting him. Nothing ever came to him easily. Nothing.

"Jughead!"

Betty's voice pierced through the fog of pining and self-doubt that was manifesting in his mind like an arrow, and he jumped immediately.

"Yeah?"

"You didn't hear a word I just said, did you?"

_No, Betty, I was too busy pining for the stupid heterosexual ginger across from me. However, your slim chance of distracting me from my pain interests me. You were saying?_

"Uh, no. Sorry."

The blonde's rosy lips curved upwards into an exasperated smile.

"God, Jughead, why don't you just tell Archie how you feel?"

He scoffed. As always, Betty Cooper saw right through him. This whole situation felt like a rom-com.

"And destroy the foundation of hardship and pining our friendship was built on? I don't think so."

God, he loved Betty- just not in the way she wanted him to. They dated for a while, but unbeknownst to them, Jughead had idiotically blurred the line between platonic and romantic love and began to think he was in love with the River Vixen. But when the line became clearer and clearer every time he laid eyes on Archie, he told her. She was upset but understood eventually. It wasn't like she was oblivious towards the feelings he was going through concerning Archie.

The system they were in worked out quite well; they would meet up at Pop's every Wednesday or Friday and wallow in their desperate feelings together. It was a friendship that could last millennia.

The bell signifying the end of lunch rang through a haze of deep thought in Jughead's mind, and Archie immediately sprang up in perfect unison with Veronica's more graceful movements, and they were off to their respective classes.

Staring at the back of their heads, Jughead sighed louder than he ever did in his entire life before Betty dragged their sorry asses back to the school building.

And thus was the never-ending cycle he endured.

_______________

Pop Tate was a godsend. That fact was clear to almost anyone who was familiar with the man's passion for cooking and people.

He offered solid refuge for desperate people, befriended the lonely, and brought light to the shitty situation Riverdale was currently privy to.

But to the unsuspecting eye, he looked like just another middle-class chef trying to make ends meet.

The man put real perspective into Jughead's life.

As he sat down at his usual both inside the cramped diner and set up his laptop, Pop set a steaming cup of coffee down next to him just as he always did when he saw his favorite customer enter his restaurant. The two had unknowingly formed a physic connection based entirely around their mutual love for fried food and caffeine.

The diner was empty as it usually was at 6:00 PM on a Tuesday, the perfect time for Jughead to settle down and type his recollection of his town's ironic tragedy without any interruptions.

It was serving him quite well too, until an all too familiar chime signified the arrival of another person. Jughead let out a little huff of annoyance before scalding coffee distracted him from who was actually disturbing him.

Because the universe actually hated him, Archie slid into the other side of the booth with his trademark smirk and smiling eyes. Jughead, because he usually needed a full five minutes to prepare himself before seeing the boy and was totally caught off guard, nearly spat out his coffee.

He wasn't used to seeing Archie outside of school grounds. Ever since Fred got shot, the redhead dedicated all of his spare time towards taking care of his father and making sure he didn't do anything stupid. Jughead kinda built his week's schedule around that fact.

After recovering from his shock, he let out a cough and brought his eyes back toward his screen.

"I thought you were uninterested toward anything not Fred related. Doesn't he need your help getting a sponge-bath or something?"

Jughead could practically feel the exasperation radiating off of his best friend/unintentional love of his life.

"He's not totally helpless, y'know. Besides he kicked me out of the house."

"Then I thought you had a certain Lodge to entertain."

A sigh escaped Archie's lips.

"Believe it or not, Jughead, you are still one of my main priorities."

"Could'a fooled me."

Great, and now he was acting like a jealous spouse. This conversation was teetering off the edge of the cool nonchalant one he hoped to maintain. And now, his palms were sweaty and his stomach felt like it had sunken down towards the floor. Jughead took another sip of his coffee, unaware of the nonsense words he was typing on his computer.

"Great to see your still just as self-depreciating as before, Jug. Really," Archie said, his eyebrows pulled together in frustration. And-

Ouch.

Great, he fucked up this whole thing. Archie seemed to notice the tense demeanor Jughead had suddenly taken on because the next thing he said was, "I'm sorry, Jughead. It's just I have so much on my plate right now, especially with my dad-"

"I get it, Arch. Besides, my self-depreciation is kind of my entire personality."

Jughead put on his usual smirk before reaching down to take his last precious sip of coffee, and just like that, Pop was summoned to pour steaming hot beverage into his mug.

The tense atmosphere seemed to have lifted after Jughead's lame attempt at a joke, and Archie was back to his usual chipper self. But something was-

Something was off about the boy across from Jughead. As the boy who has memorized every facial expression Archie Andrews' has ever had with obsessive fascination, it wasn't quite hard to deduce that Archie was nervous. And unlike most people at the school, he wasn't usually blinded by Archie's hair, teeth, and overall kindness and positivity. He was the literal fucking sun.

Archie slowly ran his hand through his red quiff, looking down at the floor with a stupid smirk on his face. Jughead was silently memorizing the dip of his brow when the boy spoke.

"So, Jug, there's something I wanted to talk to you about."

Archie was suddenly staring into his eyes in a sort of intense way that Jughead was none too familiar with. He kept on his nonchalant expression, but inside, he couldn't help but let fear creep its way into his thoughts.

What was so important that Archie went out if his way to tell him? He really, genuinely hoped that he wasn't about to tell him Veronica was pregnant because honestly that would probably cause him to break into tears and he didn't cry and it would be really embarrasing and he would be devastated and-

"Jughead?"

Oh.

"Um, yeah?"

"Did you hear a word I just said to you?"

"...No?"

"I love you."

Don't get your hopes up, Jughead. He doesn't mean it that way. Nothing comes easy for you. Nothing-

"What?"

"I don't think I could be any clearer than that."

"Try me."

"Alright...I'm in love with you, Jughead Jones."

Oh.

_Oh._

_**Oh.** _

Sweet Jesus.

__________

When Jughead woke up in Archie Andrews' bed, he didn't almost faint again. He didn't.

He also didn't almost faint when Archie himself walked through the door and started bombarding him with apologies and question and concern.

And no, he most certainly did not almost faint when Archie reminded him of the confession he made before he fainted as a result of extreme shock.

Nope, Jughead Jones did not cry as he made a similar confession.

And under no circumstances-how can you even think that?-did Jughead Jones faint again when Archie Andrews invited him to a date at Pop's with a huge grin on his extraordinary face.

_The literal fucking sun, I tell you._

**Author's Note:**

> update: hey guys!!! as of right now i am a married woman!!! whiooooookooiooooh!!!! i also might be a little drunk sorry!!!!


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